Adherents.com: Religious Groups in Literature

34,420 citations from literature (mostly science fiction and fantasy) referring to real churches, religious groups, tribes, etc. [This database is for literary research only. It is not intended as a source of information about religion.]

science fiction - Peter Pan, continued...

[Based on a screenplay by Jim V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo and screen story by Jim V. Hart and Nick Castle.]

"AUTHOR'S NOTE

This is the story of Peter Pan. It is not the story that everyone knows, the one written by J. M. Barrie and read by wise children and curious adults for more than eighty years. It is not even one of the lesser-known Pan stories. It is too new for that, having not come about until just recently and well after J. M. Barrie's time. This is its first formal telling.

This story is not just about Peter Pan either--no more so than any we know. It is about a good many things besides Peter himself, though he would be the last to admit that there were tales of any sort worth telling that did not concern themselves with him. The title, for instance, clearly indicates that the story is about someone other than just Peter. James Hook is central... " [Entire book and film, of course, is based on the Peter Pan characters. Other refs. not in DB.]

"Effortlessly, soundlessly, she glided into the air and out the window, like Peter Pan on the way to Never-Never Land. "

science fiction - Peter Pan

world

1995

Brooks, Terry. Witches' Brew. New York: Ballantine (1995); pg. -5.

[Frontispiece] Quote from Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie: "All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I supposed she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, 'Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!' This was all that passed between them on the subject, and henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end. "

"Bester's mistake was growing up. If the golden age of science fiction is twelve, it follows that SF writers will be successful in proportion as they can maintain the clarity and innocence of wise children. Writers as diverse as Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, and Orson Scott Card all owe a good part of their popularity to their Peter Pannishness. "

"...even a devoted parent like Bill, but because of the freakish plunging of the Tinkerbell anomaly into his body, just at the right moment.

...Tinkerbell in a cage, Bill Tybee called it, and that was exactly what it looked like. Just a point of light that glowed brightly, like a captive star, bobbing around in a languid, unpredictable loop inside its ramshackle trap of wire... " [Other Tinkerbell refs., not in DB, incl. pg. 450, 462-463.]

[Philip K. Dick narrating] "My real trouble concerning drugs came when Harlan Ellison in his anthology Dangerous Visions said in an introduction to a story of mine that it was 'written under the influence of LSD,' which of course was not correct. After that I had a really dreadful reputation as a doper, thanks to Harlan's desire for publicity. Later on I was able to add a paragraph to the afterword of the story stating that Harlan had not told the truth, but the harm was done. The police began to become interested in my and in the people who visited me... "

science fiction - Philip K. Dick

California

1971

Dick, Philip K. Valis. New York: Bantam (1981); pg. 138.

Pg. 138: "'Phil will contact Jamison. You can meet Goose... Phil's a famous writer--he can arrange it.' To me, Kevin said, 'You have any books currently optioned to any movie producer?'

'Yes,' I said. 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and also Three Stigmata.'

'Fine,' Kevin said. 'Then Phil can say maybe there's a film in it.' Turning to me, he said, 'Who's that producer friend of yours? The one at MGM?'

'Stan Jaffy,' I said.

'Are you still in touch with him?'

'Only on a personal basis. They let their option on Man in the High Castle lapse. He writes to me sometimes...' ";

[Book jacket] "Nicholas tells his friend Phil Dick, the SF writer (and a major character in the book), who makes a running commentary. And Nicholas is in a lot of trouble... "; Pg. 6: [Philip K. Dick narrating, with himself as a character:] "I had just sold my first science fiction story, to Tony Boucher at a magazine called Fantasy and Science Fiction, for $75, and was considering quitting my job as book clerk and becoming a full time writer, something I subsequently did. Science fiction writing became my career. " [A fictional version of the author, Philip K. Dick, is a major character in novel. The title of the first chapter is 'Phil'. Refs. throughout novel, not in DB.]; Pg. 46: The Man in the High Castle; The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch; Pg. 52: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (also pg. 57); Pg. 61: Ubik; The Man in the High Castle

science fiction - Philip K. Dick

California

1977

Dick, Philip K. Valis. New York: Bantam (1981); pg. 96.

"In my [Philip K. Dick's] novel A Scanner Darkly, published in 1977, I ripped off Fat's account of his eight hours of lurid phosphene activity.

"The alien pink Moon peers into Philip K. Dick's apartment in Santa Ana, California. The year is 1982... " [As one might surmise from the title, this novel is in large part about famed science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, except that the story takes place after his death. There are references to him throughout book, and to other science fiction writers and other aspects of the science fiction community. This novel is an excellent fictional source for researchers interested in the sociology of the religion/cultural community known as 'science fiction.']

science fiction - Philip K. Dick

California: Oakland

1971

Dick, Philip K. Valis. New York: Bantam (1981); pg. 4.

Pg. 3: "I am Horselover Fat, and I am writing this in the third person to gain much-needed objectivity. "; Pg. 4: "I am, by profession, a science fiction writer. I deal in fantasies. My life is a fantasy. Nonetheless, Gloria Knudson lies in a box in Modesto, California. " [The main character of this novel, which is written almost entirely in the third person, is 'Horselover Fat', which is a transparent surrogate for the Philip K. Dick himself. Although Valis is a work of fiction, it is probably PKD's most autobiographical novel.]

"As usual, Trevor had a stack of paperbacks on his lap. He was a crustacean as a reader, moving sideways from book to book like a crab.

'Oh, another novel channeled by Philip K. Dick. This one's entitled Mere Alibis. It's about an alternative universe in which everything is more ordinary than it looks.'

'Well,' Nelly chirped, grinning, 'if anyone has the energy to write sci-fi novels after he's dead, it's Philip K. Dick. How many does that make it so far?'

'Channeled? Forty-two.'

'That's more than he wrote in real life.'

'What can I say? He's prolific. What are you reading?'

'Something very French. A translation of Pierre Flambay's The Demise of Desire.'

...Trevor kept reading Mere Alibis. Nelly dozed... "

science fiction - Philip K. Dick

Hawaii

2008

England, Terry. Rewind. New York: Avon Books (1997); pg. 154.

"To eyes not used to digital sophistication, the scenes around him were remarkable, obviously influenced by the old movie Blade Runner. Rising around him was an odd intermingling of futuristic and medieval architecture. "

Pg. 106: "'First thing I figured out about you guys is that you're all big movie fans, aren't you?' No response, but Walter went on as if there had been a positive one. 'Remember the end of Blade Runner? Batty, the big bad replicant, is dying, see? Like I am. We had that in common.' ";

Pg. 107: "'And he gives Deckard, the Harrison Ford character, this speech about all the things he's done and all the stuff he's seen and how unfair it all is. I memorized it. Thought I might use it at my funeral.' That was a joke. No one noticed except Chamber...

Walter closed his eyes and quoted: ' 'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.' ' And Walter grabbed his throat and fell on the floor in a heap. Then he started convulsing. "

[In a rather Dicksian moment, the characters in this alternative history novel discuss an actual alternative history novel from our reality, an alt. history novel which is, in fact, about an author of an alt. history novel.] "'The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick.'

'The story starts in this year, nineteen seventy-six, but a great many things are different.'

'Are they so? We all know what CW is. Get on. What things?'

'I'll tell you if you stop interrupting. Invention has been set free a long time before. Sickness is almost conquered: nobody dies of consumption or the plague. The deserts have been made fertile. The inventors are actually called scientists, and they use electricity.'

[The characters discuss The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick.] "'They send messages all over the Earth with it [electricity]. They use it to light whole cities and even to keep folk warm. There are electric flying-machines that move at two hundred miles an hour.'

'Flying-machines always appear--this is no more than ordinary TR [s.f.],' growled Decuman. 'You said it was CW [alt. history].'

TR, or Time Romance, was a type of fiction that appealed to a type of mind. It had readers among schoolboys, colegiates, mechanics, inventors, scribes, merchantmen, members of Convocatio and even, it was whispered, those in holy orders. Though it was formally illegal, the authorities were wise enough to know that to suppress it altogether a disproportionate effort would be necessary, and contended themselves with occasional raids and confiscations. "

"'All right... there exists one science fiction work by Jack Dowland. Tiny, mediocre and totally unknown... One short story called ORPHEUS WITH CLAY FEET, under the pen name Philip K. Dick. Nobody read it then, nobody reads it now -- it was an account of a visit to Dowland by-- By a well-intentioned idiot from the future with deranged visions of inspiring him to write a mythological history o the world to come. Well, Slade? What do you say?' " [This story is also mentioned twice, pg. 300.]

[PKD's obiturary, as it appears within this novel.] PHILIP K. DICK, NOTED AMERICAN WRITER, DIED AT 53 IN AFTERMATH OF DISABLING STROKE IN SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA

Philip Kindred Dick, who suffered a stoke in Santa Ana, California, on Feb. 18, died yesterday at 8:10 A.M. in the Western Medical Center there. He was 53.

Dick forged a reputation as a significant post-War figure in American letters with an outpouring of highly original novels from the mid 1950s to the early 1970s.

His first novel, "Voices from the Streets " in 1953, won little immediate approval, being disjointed and overlong, but the critic Orville Prescott nevertheless hailed it for its "unique sense of vision and stinging critique of middle-class American values. "

[PKD's obiturary continued, as it appears within this novel.] Seven important books followed: "Mary and the Giant " (1956), "A Time for George Stavros " (1957), "Pilgrim on the Hill " (1957), "The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt " (1958), and "In Milton Lumky Territory " (1959), which Time magazine praised as "the most devastating mimetic deconstruction of capitalism since Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman.' "

Dick's productivity declined during the 1960s. Some argued that he had burned himself out writing seven major novels in as many years.

But in the eight years prior to Richard Nixon's presidency, he still managed to release three noteworth works: "Confessions of a Crap Artist " (1962), which many consider his finest novel; "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike " (1963), combining oblique social comment with Dick's idiosyncratic interest in paleoanthropology; and, strangest of all, "Nicholas and the Higs " (1967).

[PKD's obiturary continued, as it appears within this novel.] Most of Dick's biographers believe that "Nicholas and the Higs " was written in the late 1950s, set aside by the author as "unsalvageable, " and completely revised in the three years following John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

This odd book was almost universally panned. One reviewer called it an "undisciplined prank " and "concrete proof " of Dick's failing powers as a novelist. Others faulted Dick for attempting to out-Pynchon Pynchon (the apocalyptic American novelist Thomas Pynchon, best known at that time for "V ").

Most objections to "Nicholas and the Higs, " in fact, stemmed from Dick's quirky incorporation of fantasy or science-fictional elements into an otherwise naturalistic narrative. . . .

[PKD's obiturary continued, as it appears within this novel.] Most of Dick's biographers believe that "Nicholas and the Higs " was written in the late 1950s, set aside by the author as "unsalvageable, " and completely revised in the three years following John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

This odd book was almost universally panned. One reviewer called it an "undisciplined prank " and "concrete proof " of Dick's failing powers as a novelist. Others faulted Dick for attempting to out-Pynchon Pynchon (the apocalyptic American novelist Thomas Pynchon, best known at that time for "V ").

Most objections to "Nicholas and the Higs, " in fact, stemmed from Dick's quirky incorporation of fantasy or science-fictional elements into an otherwise naturalistic narrative. . . .

[PKD's obiturary continued, as it appears within this novel.] . . . Successful work by Pynchon, Joseph Heller, James Barth, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., may have prompted Dick's own ventures into "literary surrealism, " but most critics agree that it was not his forte.

After "Nicholas and the Higs, " Dick published no new books for fourteen years. In 1981, however, "Valis, " his last novel, appeared from Banshee Books, a small New York paperback house specializing in crime, martial arts, and science-fiction titles. Labeled science fiction, "Valis " strikes most partisans of Dick's work as a sordid record of the total unraveling of his personality.

[PKD's obiturary continued, as it appears within this novel.] "This book has no literary merit at all, " wrote Luke Santini in a Harper's magazine article entitled "A Crap Artist Craps Out " (Nov. 1981). "It may have value as a case history for students of psychiatry and abnormal human behavior, but as a work of art, if falls somewhere between subway graffiti and the fanatic propaganda of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. "

Banshee Books earned intense industry criticism for publishing "Valis. " The firm received these criticisms for exploiting the past reputation of the author rather than for the garbled content of the novel itself.

Then, charging seditious libel of Pres. Nixon, the Board of Media Censorship in Washington, D.C., formed during the chief executive's first term, seized a second 60,000-copy printing of "Valis " before Banshee Books could distribute it. . . .

"'I do have a cult following over there, but A Time for George Stavros, Pilgrim on the Hill, The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt--no one in that time line even thought 'em worth publishing. My cult is a [expletive] category cult, sci-fi fans who think Phil Dick has a pipeline to the Deity. I mean, I guess I should be glad to have a cult, but it's awful knowing that my early realist novels didn't rate publication over there. And I've got a group named for me--the PKD Appreciation Society--full of kids who believe They Scan Us Darkly, Don't They? is better than Nicholas and the Higs.' "

"A number of SF writers have commanded their on small legion of true believers: L. Ron Hubbard, most conspicuously, but also Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Phil Dick, J. G. Ballard, and Frank Herbert. "

"With a little less help from his friends and a little less intellectual integrity, Philip K. Dick might have been the L. Ron Hubbard of the 1980s. It is greatly to his credit that he finally declined to wrap himself in the saffron robes of guru-dom, but it was a near thing.

His temptation began in February and March 1974. At that time, he was in recovery from amphetamine abuse and married to his fifth wife, the twenty-year-old Tessa Busby, who would give him the one thing he asked for in a spouse: her infinite attention. He was writing again after a long hiatus, and solvent. The future looked bright--and then the visions began to come, and they were far brighter.

First, there was the mysterious dark-haired girl who appeared at his door to deliver the Darvon he'd been prescribed... He [Philip K. Dick] was fascinated by her necklace with its image of a fish, a sign used by the Christians... "

"In the thousand-page Exegesis he [Philip K. Dick] would soon after begin writing he would soon after begin writing as an Epistle to Himself, he began to recall his earlier lives:

When I saw the Golden fish sign in 1-74 I remembered the world of Acts--I remembered it to be my real time & place. So I am (esse/sum) Simons reborn--& not in 2-74 or 3-74 but all my life. I must face it: I am Simon but had amnesia, but then in 2-74 experienced anamnesis... I Simon am immortal & Simon is the basis for the Faust legend.

"Many sections of Dick's Exegesis, the more-than-2-million-word spiritual diary he began to keep after February 1974, would certainly qualify as hypergraphia. Take this passage, written in September 1978:

The Savior woke me temporarily, & temporarily I remembered my true nature & task, through the saving gnosis, but I must be silent, because of the true, secret, transtemporal early Christians at work, hidden among us as ordinary humans. I briefly became one of them, Siddhartha himself (the Buddha or enlightened one), but I must never assert or claim this. The true buddhas are always silent, those to whom dibbu cakha has been granted.

The difference bin this case is that the hypergraphia was the affliction of a writer of already established reputation and uncommon gifts. True buddhas may have to keep quiet about their secret identity, but traditionally they are allowed to speak in parables. So all the while Dick... "

"The only test of timelessness is the test of time, and by that standard Dick has been doing pretty well. Since his death in 1982, almost his entire oeuvre has returned to print. Two hit movies have been made from his novels; others are in production. There have been two biographies and continuous critical attention. Phil's Number One Fan, Paul Williams, established a Philip K. Dick Society, and for years its newsletter has documented the growth of his posthumous reputation. "

Simmons, Dan. "Vanni Fucci Is Alive and Well and Living in Hell " in Prayers to Broken Stones. New York: Bantam (1992; c. 1988); pg. 84.

"Later that night, the Nightline video replay drew a sixty-share. On the same show, Dr. Carl Sagan went on record with Ted Koppel as saying that the entire event could be attributed to natural causes. "

"Meadows kept talking. It was like listening to Carl Sagan on ludes. Relative mass, elliptical orbits, low density, probably metal poor, tossed and bumped like rudderless boats in the sea of technobabble pouring from the old hippie's mouth. "

"'Targeting, Ezri said... 'Phasers locked.' She reached to fire, but Sagan lurched to starboard as Gerda screamed a warning... " [Many other refs. to this shuttlecraft, named after Carl Sagan. See also pg. 196-200, 210, 250, 252.]

"...was remaining behind to assist Lieutenant Dax. Loading the shuttlecraft Sagan with the away team's supplies and piloting the ship to a bay closer to their guest quarters had left him little time for a pressing personal errand. " [Also pg. 308, 342-346, etc.]

Pg. 97: "'Here it is,' she began. 'I'm sure you've all seen this map of Sagan Two--the best reconstruction possible from fly-bys and radioholograms...' "; Pg. 100: "'Now let me tell you our plan of operation, when we have reached Sagan Two. As you will see by the map, more than fifty percent of the surface is ice covered, to an estimated average depth of three kilometers. All the oxygen we shall ever need!' " [Other refs., not in DB. Part IX of the book is titled 'Sagan Two'.]

Like the others, Sagan seemed angry, frustrated, his signature optimism jolted by events. 'Walter Asquith,' he said, 'was also with us on this journey. Walter was a poet.' " [More about Carl Sagan, an actual character in the novel, pg. 366-369.]

science fiction - Sagan

Ontario: Toronto

2000

Sawyer, Robert J. Calculating God. New York: Tor (2000); pg. 55.

[Pg. 55: Carl Sagan's explanation of the Drake equation for estimating the number of intelligent species in the galaxy, as seen on Sagan's program Novus, discussed. More Carl Sagan, pg. 67, 103.]

"Remember, the Sagan is an ordinary cruiser...' " [More about this ship, pg. 44-47, 114, 185-189.]

science fiction - Sagan

USA

1993

Wilson, Robert Charles. The Harvest. New York: Bantam (1993); pg. 22.

"LIFE IN UNIVERSE INEVITABLE: SAGAN

Astronomer and popular writer Carl Sagan argues that the events of the past six months were 'inevitable, in one form or another, given overwhelming odds that life has evolved elsewhere in the galaxy. We ought to be grateful that this has happened in our lifetime.' " [More about Carl Sagan, a part-time science fiction writer, pg. 22-23.]

science fiction - Sagan

USA

1997

Sawyer, Robert J. Illegal Alien. New York: Ace Books (1997); pg. 51.

"'When PBS was contemplating making a new astronomy series, they wanted someone who could fill Carl Sagan's shoes. Their first choices were Cletus Calhoun . . . and Packwood Smathers.' "

"...but the federal government, led by a science-friendly President Sagan, had just shown what seemed an excessive amount of faith in him, by giving him an open-ended grant... " ['Sagan' named probably after astronomer/s.f. writer Carl Sagan.]

science fiction - Sagan

Washington, D.C.

1998

Steele, Allen. Chronospace. New York: Ace Books (2001); pg. 22.

Pg. 22: "Not that he couldn't write at all--in fact, one of his dissertation advisors, no less than the estimable Carl Sagan, often remarked on his innate writing skills... "; Pg. 148: "...and thanked God that Carl Sagan was no longer alive so he wouldn't have to tell his old Cornell prof what he was now doing for a living. "

[Author's Note] "In the last decade, there has also been a significant, and rather surprising, change in the attitude of scientists toward the problem of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The whole subject did not become respectable (except among dubious characters like the writers of science fiction) until the 1960s: Shklovskii and Sagan's Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966) is the landmark here.

But now there has been a backlash. The total failure to find any trace of life... 'Perhaps we are alone in the Universe. . .' Dr. Frank Tipler, the best-known exponent of this view, has (doubtless deliberately) outraged the Saganites by giving one of his papers the provocative title 'There Are No Intelligent Extra-Terrestrials.' Carl Sagan et al argue (and I agree with them) that it is much too early to jump to such far-reaching conclusions. "

Pg. 77: "'...'As Carl Sagan used to say, 'It's a wonderful time to be alive,' Lindemann said.'

Carl Sagan, who died just months before the Pathfinder mission & the release of Contact, the movie based on his SF novel about contact with extraterrestrials, is a sadly emblematic figure. He was consistently one of NASA's biggest promotes and actively involved in many of its projects. His angle was always that there must be life out there. In pursuit of that faith, he helped to organize SETI... Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. SETI began to broadcast messages to the stars, hoping that someone would beam a message back. To date there has been no reply. Sagan's response to the silence of the stars was to invent one. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of Contact. Sagan, who throughout his career had been a principled debunker of UFO fanatics, will probably be remembered best for having assisted in buttressing that faith. " [Also pg. 45, 231]

"...the Beast exclaimed. 'Where in the sainted name of Carl Sagan did that come from?'

...The saucer looked like an escapee from a 1950's sci-fi movie... "

science fiction - Sagan

world

2000

Sawyer, Robert J. Calculating God. New York: Tor (2000); pg. 231.

"I'd spent my whole life being a rationalist, a secular humanist, a scientist.

They say Carl Sagan maintained his atheism right until the end. Even as he lay dying, he didn't recant, didn't admit any possibility of there ever being a personal God who cared one way or the other whether he lived or died.

And yet--

And yet, I had read his novel Contact. I'd seen the movie, too, for that matter, but the movie watered down the message of the novel. The book was unambiguous: it said that the universe had been designed, created to order by a vast sentience. The novel concluded with the words, 'There is an intelligence that antedates the universe.' Sagan may not have believed in the God of the Bible, but he at least allowed for the possibility of the creator.

Or did he? Carl was no more obliged to believe what he wrote in his sole work of fiction than George Lucas was required to believe in the Force. " [More on Sagan, pg. 232.]

"'...Shklovskii and Sagan estimated that there are more than one thousand million habitable planets in our galaxy alone. Von Hoerner estimated that one in three million have advanced societies in orbit around them; Sagan said one in one hundred thousand. Either way it's good odds that there's somebody there...' "

"They were all there, all the Grand Old Men of the field: McKay, Kliest, Taranto--even Sagan, little more than an ancient husk in his electric wheelchair. But the fire still burned in his deep, dark eyes. " [A few other refs. to Carl Sagan, not in DB, included in this story not as an s.f. writer, but a cosmologist.]

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